The Omotola interview: Putting the record straight….My wife is no flirt —Ekeinde, Omotola’s husband

Let me start first by saying that I am humbled by the popularity of this column, only six weeks after it made its debut. I am told, and this has been verified by random Google search, that this column has been culled and appropriated by practically every social media platform including leading bloggers all over the world. One of such bloggers called me, to say she has been eagerly awaiting my column every Sunday, and updates on my blog, EkereteUdoh.com, so she would be the first to post my stories. I must say that I am flattered. Last week, I published on this page, excerpts of an interview that Omotola Jalade Ekeinde granted my New York-based newspaper, The Diasporan Star, in December 2009, and also on my blog. The interview, though done some years ago, was still relevant. (the kind of interviews that have no time-limit or currency). The story has become a hit on social media and some other newspapers here. The popular blogger, BellaNaija, culled the story, and a day after, Omotola, through the same BellaNaija, denied ever granting the interview to Sunday Vanguard. She, however, did not deny that the said interview did take place and that some other excerpts of the same interview were published in The Diaspora Star, which she had read when it was first published. Since her denial, there has been a feeding frenzy on the social media, with some misguided fellows thinking that the interview did not take place and I am offended by this. The notion that I, Ekerete Udoh, one of the pioneers of this genre of journalism in Nigeria, a man who God has used to promote and project Nigerian pop culture and its practitioners both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, would publish an interview that was not properly conducted is, to say the least, stupid, puerile and utterly objectionable and I AM MAD AS HELL! Let me, for the records, state that the said interview took place in Omotola’s HOLIDAY INN, hotel room in Yonkers, New York. Since 2008, I have been the publisher of The Diasporan Star newspaper, easily and without sounding immodest, the most popular newspaper that projects and promotes Nigerian, nay African, pop culture, politics and our way of life in the United States. The newspaper, to the glory of God, has grown in stature and reviewed by such newspapers as The New York Daily News, Post, among others. In 2010, when the Queen of Daytime Television, Oprah Winfrey, did a segment on her show on Nollywood and Bollywood, and wanted background information on Nollywood and its stars, it was my newspaper – The Diasporan Star – that she turned to. Her production outfit, HARPO, contacted us, and we provided the background information she used in the segment where Genevieve Nnaji was called ‘The Julia Roberts of Africa.’ Because of the impact my newspaper has made in the United States, I was honored by the New York State Senate in 2012 for ‘Outstanding Community Service’, an event where CNN’s Anderson Cooper was also honoured. I have been invited to address students on African pop culture and politics at many institutions in the United States among them the New School of Social Research in New York City, a top school that has as its president, the former Nebraska senator and former Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Bob Kerry. My newspaper has been media partners to a number of campaigns in the U.S, including the Obama/Biden Campaign Organisation, where we canvassed support for the African-Diaspora community for the ticket. Ours, therefore, has been a credible medium, and I hold, very dearly, my over 20 years of storied journalism career. Now, this is the fact of the story. I first met Omotola in 2008 or thereabout, when her then manager – Jim Bass – asked me to help promote her in North America. Omotola had a musical performance at Lehman College, the Bronx, as part of an event that was put together by former beauty queen and Nollywood actress, Regina Askia. Because I was her big fan and was proud of what she was doing, I agreed to help promote her in the media. Since then, Omotola and I struck a very professional relationship. In 2009, during another of her visits to New York for the premier of an HIV/AIDS movie produced by Nollywood actress and producer, Chisom, I helped alongside her then manager, Bass, to organise a meet-and-greet session for her at the popular Nigerian watering hole – Tropical Grill, a restaurant and lounge – located about ten minutes away from JFK Airport, and has played host to many prominent Nigerians including former President Obasanjo. My friend, Ms. Bola Jawo, the owner of that restaurant, agreed to give us the hall free, to host Omotola. Jawo can authenticate this. Private life At the event, Omotola was so impressed by the huge turnout of fans and our friendship deepened. It was at that event that I asked her for an interview that was going to be different – where emphasis was going to be placed on her private life, her marriage and other angles that the media had not explored. She told me exultantly, “Thank God, this is going to be different form all those generic questionnaires I have been used to, from Nigerian journalists”. The next day, in the company of my two daughters, Ekaete Bukola and Uduak Temitope Udoh, respectively, (my daughters, Ekaete, who has already graduated from college and will be starting her law school in the spring 2015, and Uduak, who is a freshman in college, are Omotola’s fans and had told me they will not forgive me if I didn’t take them along to see their idol). I drove to Yonkers – a distance of about 30 minutes from New York City – and the said interview took place right there in her room at the Holiday Inn. It was a meeting of two friends and I remember her even jokingly telling me not to take pictures because she just woke up and “looked a mess”. We all laughed and told her she was as beautiful as ever. Since then, I have done other stories on Omotola and she has regularly sought my help to tamp down negative situations that arose about her. When in 2011, a picture surfaced on the internet showing a man with his hands firmly grabbing her butt, and it sparked a media frenzy on the state of her marriage, with most accusing her of cheating on her husband, it was me and my news paper, that she ran to, to help debunk that story. Not only did she grant me an interview, she also made me speak with her husband, who had stoutly defended her. That interview finally put a lid on that brewing mess and it is all over the social media. I reproduce below, that interview and her confirmation of the initial 2009 interview that she purportedly denied was ever granted. The Diasporan Star edition of May 2011 reported the story. “In our last edition, we did a cover story which was titled, `Omotola in the eye of the storm! Husband angry over butt-grabbing photo at the Grammys…Why she apologized.’ The story centered around the rumors then spreading all over the world about the state of marriage of Omotola – by far, one of the most visible and popular stars in the Nollywood firmament – following a butt-grabbing incident by her escort at the 2011 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, an event that had Omotola, as the first Nollywood star to ever walk the Red Carpet at the star-studded event.